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A year ago today, Palestinian civil society leader Ameer Makhoul, an Israeli citizen, was arrested from his Haifa home after it was raided by Israeli forces. Makhoul, the coordinator of Ittijah, the Union of Arab Community Associations and an advocate of boycott, divestment and sanctions, warned The Electronic Intifada in January of 2010 that Israel was increasingly persecuting the Palestinian community in Israel, attempting to cut the community off from the rest of the Palestinian national movement. “Israel uses its legal system and its laws on citizenship and loyalty to the Jewish state to achieve this,” Makhoul said.

Last month, when I traveled from Haifa to the land border between Jordan and Israel, the Israeli border police prevented me from leaving my country. The police handed me an order issued by the Israeli Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai prohibiting me to leave Israel for two months. The travel ban imposed on me is part of an increased campaign to intimidate and to spread fear among Palestinian civil society. The repression is meant to divide us, but it has had the opposite effect. We Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and the diaspora are only more determined and united to claim our rights and to build a nation where we can live in freedom and have equal rights.

The Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer also reported that after meeting with Makhoul, “his attorneys reported that he appeared exhausted and had been subjected to intensive, around-the-clock interrogations. He also complained of pains and dizziness, and said that he had been visited by a prison doctor,” raising concerns that Makhoul had been subjected to ill-treatment and torture in detention at the Petach Tikva interrogation and detention center where he was being held. As reported by The Electronic Intifada later that month, Makhoul’s lawyers later said that he had been tortured during detention and forced to make a false confession.

The deal involves a reduced list of charges, including contact with a foreign agent and spying for the Lebanese resistance movement Hizballah. The charges carry a maximum prison sentence of seven to ten years. …

According to Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh, Chairperson of the Committee for the Defense of Ameer Makhoul, while the decision to plead guilty to reduced charges was extremely difficult for Makhoul, his family and the defense team, the reality of life for Palestinian citizens of Israel made it the only option.

“Historically, the record of Israel’s court system shows that nearly 100 percent — definitely over 95 percent — of cases where a person is accused or arrested on the basis of security violations, are indicted and put in jail. The court finds them guilty. Especially when the accused is a Palestinian, of course,” Kanaaneh explained.

Sentencing hearings for Makhoul are ongoing, and his plight continues, but he has sent letters to the Palestinian and solidarity communities from prison, published on EI: